The party encounters people turning against Donovan and the Eastern Shengdu Temple left and right, prompting them to try and find a way to take the spotlight off of him.
Characters Interacted With
Michael: Still on guard duty in the temple. Performed a ritual to try and heal Jinli and Donovan’s Souls.
Eastern Shengdu Temple Monks: Had an argument accusing each other of being spies. One was thrown out after being caught.
Donovan: Showed interest in Bachariel’s device. Very sick.
Master Hua: Kicked the traitorous monk out. Received the group of important officials who wished to discuss the current the current political climate and Donovan.
Government Officials: Brought up the idea of revoking Donovan’s leadership of the plant constructs project and making him issue a public apology.
Mei: Present in discussions about Donovan. Mentioned that Louisa was behind most of the organization behind the anti-plant protesters.
Guiying: Present in discussions about Donovan. Helped with the ritual on Donovan’s Soul.
Jinli: Had a ritual performed to realign his Soul and Spirit.
Nadyn: Agreed to help Amanti contact Louisa.
Soup: Was cute. Drank some boba tea.
Other Characters Mentioned: Louisa, Anahe
Locations
- Eastern Shengdu Temple
- Master Hua’s demiplane
Session Overview
After Amanti, Brooks, and Bachariel took a short rest, Fanna returned with some boba for the party. Once they finished chastising them for not being present while Amanti and Brooks almost died, they caught them up to speed with what they missed. Soup seemed eager to give the matcha boba tea Fanna got for Donovan to him, and ran down the hall to the infirmary door. Bachariel picked it up right as Donovan opened the door to check on the racket. After complaining about the party not having control over their creature, Bachariel told him that Soup was trying to give him the boba, only for Donovan to slam the door in his face.
As the party lounged around, Fanna decided to do some rounds in the temple. With the Lantern of Revealing, they were able to spot countless invisible protective talismans pasted on the halls, along with a harmless small Spirit hiding in a candle, but did not see anything out of the ordinary. As they passed the last corner before having made a complete circuit, they came across a group of monks arguing. One, a male monk, was holding back another male monk, who was struggling against him. The remaining monk, female, was holding up a crudely drawn map, which looked similar to the one which one of the adventurers that broke in last session had in their possession. On the floor was a brush used for writing, and several scattered ink stains.
The female monk and the male monk holding the monk back accused the remaining monk of being a spy, saying they caught him holding up the map to the wall and trying to write on it with the brush. He in turn said he rounded the corner and saw them conspiring together, with the woman holding onto the map and the both of them writing on it. Fanna tried resolving the issue by themself, but couldn’t get a clear answer. Eventually, the other party members heard the commotion and came over, but they were unable to come to a clear conclusion either, so Fanna fetched Michael. The party then noticed ink stains on the female monk and her accompanying monk’s hands, but they claimed it was from earlier when they were writing scripture. Michael asked each of the monks to write on a piece of paper in front of him, then carefully picked up the brush and examined it. Finally, he grabbed the lone male monk and asked him to come with him, much to his protest. The other two monks came with, and though Fanna and Bachariel tried to follow Michael and the monks, he caught them and whistled for them to stay out of this.
As the party waited, they ended up discussing Lauran. Fanna stated how they no longer wanted to kill Lauran, and were content to let him live. This confused Bachariel and the rest of the party, as Bachariel joined with the stated goal to kill Lauran. The party ended up debating the merits of letting Lauran live so he could suffer punishment, stealing his work and using it for the common good, destroying his work instead, and the possibility of him becoming a martyr if he was killed. Finally, the party overheard an incensed Master Hua throwing the lone male monk from before out of his quarters. He begged for mercy from the party, but they gave him the cold shoulder. Having had enough of his pleas, Master Hua ripped off his monk cap and kicked him out of the temple.
A group of monks then approached Master Hua, telling him that an important delegation from the government arrived. Master Hua went to receive them, and the two went off to discuss things in private. The party, sensing this was something important, sent Brooks to eavesdrop on them. Master Hua told the delegation to wait for him and went up to Brooks, having seen through his attempts to sneak after them. He asked Brooks how good his sneaking abilities were, and after receiving confirmation of his expertise in it, agreed to cast Invisibility on Brooks, giving him implicit permission to eavesdrop on the meeting.
Master Hua and the invisible Brooks caught up with the delegation, then teleported to Master Hua’s demiplane to discuss matters. There, the delegation revealed their plan to deal with the rising political and cultural crisis: Transfer ownership of the plant constructs project from Donovan to a different group of talented and capable scientists, and in turn give Donovan a monetary payout as substitute. Then, to quell hostile sentiment, Donovan would also participate in a “public reconciliation session”, where he’d go out and kneel before the public, issue an apology while begging for forgiveness, and promise to never contribute to the project again. The public would then be given their turn to respond.
Master Hua protested this plan, explaining that Donovan was in no shape to do something like that—He couldn’t even walk without help. The delegation countered, saying that someone could simply help Donovan walk in public. They even said they believed Michael would be a great fit, requesting that he be summoned to the meeting as well. Master Hua obliged, and Michael soon showed up. He too, protested the plan, but the government officials reminded him it was his duty as a servant of the public.
The meeting soon adjourned, with the delegation promising they’d keep in contact with Master Hua once they further considered the plan. After sending the delegation off, Master Hua pulled Brooks aside and told him to not tell Donovan or his father anything about the plans, and Brooks agreed.
Brooks ran back to the party and told them what happened. Shocked, they tried thinking of what to do. They went over to Master Hua’s quarters to try and discuss things, and found Master Hua, Michael, Guiying, and Mei inside. After some back and forth, the party proposed trying to take the public pressure off of Donovan by diverting attention to a different target, but could find no suitable alternative. They then thought about maybe finding the person or persons who’d been organizing the anti-plant constructs protests, and trying to convince them to go after a different target. While pondering this, Mei revealed that it was Amanti’s wife that was one who was doing this, shocking the other NPCs. Everyone decided Amanti would try and contact his wife, Louisa, and convince her to divert attention off of Donovan. Mei requested that if this was done, that she’d be allowed to attend too, and everyone agreed.
Then, they heard scratching at the doors. Master Hua opened them, revealing a haggard Donovan on the other side, and several of the plant constructs by him. He held up a piece of paper—the blueprints Bachariel was working on while brainstorming his magitech phone idea—and said he had found them on the floor. Bachariel thanked him for returning the blueprint to him, and Donovan asked him if it was some kind of combined Sending Stone device. Bachariel explained his plans, and with Donovan’s curiosity piqued, the two went back and forth for a bit on the logistics of it. Bachariel admitted how even though it was a nice idea, he didn’t have the funds for such a project. It was then that Michael conveniently gave Bachariel a sack of gold that was just the right amount to cover the costs, whispering to him that as long as it kept Donovan happy, the cost was nothing to him. Bachariel extended a request to Donovan that he assist him with the project, but Donovan was hesitant: He explained that his health problems have made it so he has a more difficult time reading, and gets headaches if he tries reading for too long. In addition, the damage to his nerves have made it so his right hand shakes when he tries holding things, like his tools. Bachariel insisted this wasn’t a problem, and the two continued yapping for a while, interspaced with Donovan breaking off into coughing fits and coughing up dried blood and dead leaves. Fanna tried handing him a handkerchief, but only received a death glare from Donovan, who still held a grudge against them.
Later, Amanti sought out Nadyn, who was doing Tai Chi with Anahe. Nadyn seemed to agree to help Amanti, but revealed that Louisa wished to keep her distance from Amanti for a while. Still, Nadyn told Amanti that Louisa had given him a special bundle of incense sticks and incense holder. If he wished to summon her, he could light it at night, and she’d try to show up as soon as possible. He said that she cautioned her to only use it in emergencies, and that she’d return once everything “boiled over.” Amanti thanked Nadyn for his help, and would return to him when he was ready. Nadyn went back to doing Tai Chi with Anahe, who gave Amanti a frown.
Over the next few days, the party continued to hang around the temple. Bachariel and Donovan worked together on the magitech phone project, enough to the point that they had a prototype. Meanwhile, Fanna sought out Master Hua with a request: They wanted to shadow him for several days, as they were thinking of possibly becoming a monk as well. Master Hua told them that unfortunately he was too busy to take up a task, but he could ask around from his monks to see if any of them were open to being shadowed. Satisfied, Fanna thanked Master Hua, and went back to the party.
Michael approached the party members one by one, and asked them if they wanted to watch him perform a ritual to help repair Jinli’s condition for educational purposes. The party agreed, and everyone gathered in the rear courtyard. Michael led Jinli in, and instructed him to kneel on a special ceremonial rug. Surrounding the rug was several bobbins made of jade. After asking each of the party members what they thought a soul was, he proceeded to give background on Souls in Lingguoren thought—How they were more or less the nonphysical part of a being that makes them uniquely them, had a complex relationship with the Spirit, to the point some scholars thought they were the same thing, and that Spirit could be considered more “fluid” compared to the Soul.
Michael then did the ritual on Jinli. As Jinli’s flame representing his Spirit appeared, a bunch of interwoven threads were visible within the flame. Michael used special wooden needles to carefully examine the threads, attaching the ones that didn’t need healing on the bobbins. After finally finding a clump of threads that were dirty and blunted, Michael used a bag of traditional alchemical ingredients to restore them to a better state, then put the threads back in their proper places. He told Jinli that he should feel noticeably better the next day, and thanked the party for bringing the ailing Koi Spirit to him.
Then, Michael broke off to talk with Guiying and Mei. They wanted to examine Donovan next to get a better idea of what was wrong with him. Guiying and Mei explained how Mei had made a Binding Vow to heal Donovan, linking their Souls, which would probably affect the process. Michael asked the party if they had noticed anything odd about Donovan when they first met him at the Caochuan Science Expo and Fair, but they admitted that he seemed fine. Mei testified how she didn’t notice any notably odd behavior from him as well when she knew him, at least not enough to suspect something was wrong with his Soul. Nonetheless, Michael fetched Donovan, who was led in assisted by his plant constructs.
Donovan knelt on the rug, and Michael began the same process. When he first touched one of Donovan’s threads, Donovan seemed to wince, but he said he was fine. During the process, the party and NPCs saw how damaged Donovan’s threads were, with many looking burnt, frayed, or outright torn apart. A single red thread appeared to trail out from deep within the core and taper off toward Mei’s direction—the result of the Binding Vow Mei had made. After finding a peculiar especially damaged thread which another thread had wrapped itself around, Michael attempted to examine it with the needles. Instantly, Donovan began retching and dry heaving, before eventually vomiting up a corrosive, black sludge, which was so toxic that the grass it instantly touched withered and died on the spot. The plant constructs got to their feet and beeped shrilly, before shrinking away from the sludge and shivering. Guiying yelled at Fanna to grab Master Hua, and at Amanti to go grab water for Donovan. Brooks, who was left in close proximity to the sludge, avoided having his Soul damaged, but was rendered nauseous by its presence and began dry heaving as well.
Amanti came back with the water, and Fanna with Master Hua. Master Hua ran over to Donovan, who was on the ground still dry heaving and clawing at his mouth. Master Hua realized Donovan was choking on something, and instructed Michael and Guiying in High Tongue to hold him. Together, both NPCs and party members watched as Master Hua pulled a large black, slimy vine from out of Donovan’s throat, before dropping it on the ground, where it wriggled around and killed all the grass it touched as well. Fanna and Amanti’s Souls received some damage from the cursed thing, Amanti also being overcome with nausea and dry heaving.
Guiying and Michael rushed Donovan back to the infirmary, the plant constructs beeping in pursuit. Master Hua ran to get a gourd and trapped the vine inside. His fingers were burnt from touching the vine, and his expression was dour—The “vine” Donovan was choking on was a Frayed Thread. The session ended with him telling the party to not tell anyone else what had happened, before carrying the gourd back to his quarters.
Key Learnings
- Together, several consultants on the plant construct project, the Minister of Public Safety and Peace, and the mayor of Shengdu proposed that leadership of the plant construct project be transferred to someone else, and Donovan issue a public apology and participate in a “public reconciliation session.”
- Louisa was behind the organization of the anti-plant constructs protests. She gave Nadyn a special incense he could light to summon her, but instructed him to only use it in emergencies.
- A Soul was a nebulous concept that could be directly interacted with to heal ailments by those skilled enough. It’s relationship with Spirit was complex and hotly debated, from some considering them different manifestations of the same thing, to others considering them completely separate. Appeared as a tightly-wound bundle of interwoven threads, who’s condition depended on the health of a being’s Soul.
- Donovan is fucking sick.
Items Of Importance
- Spirit-Revealing Mirror
- Special Incense (mentioned)
- Bachariel’s “phone” (work in progress)